HATVP – Gérard Larcher, President of the French Senate, Thinks Politics Is ‘Nothing’

It is customary for Mr. Larcher to come and offer his wishes to the elected local officials, at the beginning of the year. Thus, the President of the French Senate recently visited our small city of Jouy-en-Josas. It is also true that the senator, a trained veterinarian and renowned statesman, as already known to us by our article dated 26th April 2021, shares, since a long time, his passion for equestrian sports with our first deputy mayor, Mr. Gilles Curti.

But if Mr. Larcher and Mr. Curti have a common taste for the ‘horse’ thing, there also is, besides their membership to the same political family (the Republicans), another point that they share with Madame Marie-Hélène Aubert, our mayor: it is the fact of straddling very little^[1]or to be very little à cheval sur as we say in French the rules and principles governing the conflicts of interests or the transparency in public life.

From the authorized circles, the number two of the French State was moved by the article of the Contrib.City concerning him. It must, however, be admitted that the emotion was not powerful enough for which Mr. Larcher to correct his last declaration to the High Authority for the transparency in the public life.

Indeed, on 19th January 2022, the HATVP account of the former Mayor of Rambouillet^[2]a subprefecture or commune in the Yvelines départment of France which accounts more than 27,000 inhabitants^[3]Any mayor of a town whose population is more than 20,000 inhabitants must declare his interests to the High Authority for the transparency in the public life., showed under the Section 7 – Elective positions and offices held at the time of the election or the nomination: None. This man, however, has been an elected representative for almost 40 years! We cannot, therefore, say that he is a dark horse of French politics, and not experienced in the area of rights, but also in that of duties, in front of the French citizens!

The fact remains that in all his declarations to the High Authority, dated from 2017, 2020 and 2021, Mr. Larcher, former minister of the French Jacques Chirac’ government, declares, on the honor, from the top of his presidency in the Senate^[4]Mr. Larcher was elected as a senator in 1986 then reelected in 1995, 2004, 2007, 2011 and 2017. He became President of the Senate in 2014. that all of his brilliant public positions – and the remunerations that accompanied them – are nothing. This response from Man to his own ambition leads to, perhaps involuntary on the part of the declarer, and like a Pegasus commissioned by Zeus, the existential question about the meaning of the political mandate: personal ambition or service to others? This questioning paves way for other interrogations: what is the significance of each of our existences? Are we of no worth people who are moving towards nothingness and oblivion, or are we human beings trying to help each other and to move forward together, towards more truth, and hence more serenity, and towards a life full of true relations and fraternity?

Translation: Vidhi Taparia, BdF.

(Cover Photo: AFP/Archives. Refer: https://www.publicsenat.fr)